Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned on Sunday that any US attack on his country would trigger a “regional war” in the Middle East, as US President Donald Trump struck a softer tone toward Tehran and said on Saturday that he believed Iran was talking “seriously” with Washington.
The Associated Press, called the 86-year-old Khamenei’s comments “his most direct threat” yet. They came as the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and its accompanying warships have been deployed to the Arabian Sea, after Iranian protests over worsening economic conditions and rising prices. The protests turned into clashes with security forces, and took on a political character calling for the overthrow of the ruling system, before ending last month.
Khamenei described the protests as a “coup,” and blamed Trump for “encouraging the protesters.” Reports say tens of thousands of people have been arrested since the demonstrations began.
In Iran, the penalty for incitement to sedition can be death, reviving fears that Tehran could carry out mass executions of detainees, a scenario that Trump views as a red line.
Iran is planning live-fire military drills on Sunday and Monday in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the narrow entrance to the Arabian Gulf through which one-fifth of the world’s oil trade passes. US Central Command warned against threatening US warships or aircraft during the drills, or disrupting commercial shipping.
Khamenei said on Sunday, “American should know that if it starts a war, this time it will be a regional war.” He added, “We are not the instigators, and we do not seek to attack any country, but if America attacks or harms Iran, the Iranian nation will deliver a strong blow, and any war started by America will spread across the region.”
At the same time, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Iran now considers all European Union armies to be terrorist groups, after the EU announced it was designating Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization because of its bloody crackdown on protests nationwide.
Ghalibaf, a former Revolutionary Guard commander, said, “Only those who stand on the side of the terrorists themselves could deny the IRGC's record in the fight against ISIS terrorism. Supporting terrorism will bring nothing but regret to the European countries.”
Trump set two red lines for military action against Iran: killing peaceful protesters and the potential mass execution of detainees. He has also increasingly raised Iran’s nuclear program, which the United States negotiated with Tehran in several sessions before Israel launched a 12-day war against Iran last June. During that war, the United States bombed three Iranian nuclear sites.
On Saturday, Trump said he believed Iran was talking “seriously” with the United States, adding that he hoped to reach an “acceptable” agreement.
When a reporter aboard Air Force One asked whether he had decided to launch a strike against Iran, Trump replied, “I certainly can’t tell you that.”
He added, “But we do have very big, powerful ships heading in that direction. I hope they negotiate something that’s acceptable.”
The US-Iran escalation marks a second wave in a matter of months after the June war between Israel and Iran, in which the United States took part by launching airstrikes on Iran that it said aimed to “deter Tehran from developing its nuclear program.”
Iran responded to those US strikes by firing missiles at the US Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, before Trump announced the end of the war under an agreement “by and between Israel and Iran.”
